Only when you have done this do your team really understand where it is they are going. And once they all know and understand this you can together start to work on the strategies and steps that will take you there.

The best vision statements not only make for effective leadership, they can make for inspirational leadership. If everyone is crystal clear about the end game and there is no energy being used in understanding or clarifying, then the whole team have more energy at their disposal to look for creative ways of achieving the goal.

One of my clients recently did this to great effect. She has recently taken over a team whose remit is to provide admin and sales support for a national sales team. Her vision of the future was to completely overhaul the team so the services it provided were of a much higher calibre than previously. Where the emphasis was to be more on sales rather than support. She wanted to build a vision that reflected this and asked me to help.

Using Clean Language, I asked her lots of questions about the team she wanted to build.

She came up with a metaphor for the word support – an Olympic podium, on which both her team and the national sales team stood. The podium represented a strong base, the processes and procedures that provided the admin that kept the whole thing running smoothly. The people standing on the podium were members of her team and the external sales force they were supporting.

The sales aspect was represented by the winners medals – Gold, Silver or Bronze depending on sales success.

My client drew the vision to present to her own team and the sales force. Instantly they understood that everyone had the same goal for themselves – excellence in sales. Further more, they were all on the same journey, albeit at different stages. And finalIy, no one could forget the crucial aspect of admin support, for without that, no one would achieve any medals because the whole thing would come crashing down.

From that point, identifying the steps and actions needed to get there were relatively easy and good progress is now being made.

So if you would like to build and communicate to your team a vision that will give the journey to your vision a kick start, why not try building your own metaphoric landscape using Clean Language?

Clean Language was developed by David Grove

Whether you are a business owner or other business leader, if you would like to know more about how to build and communicate your vision using Clean Language, please call me on (07551) 303835 or e-mail me at allison@macintoshwright.co.uk for a free 30 minute consultation

And I saw the parallel in another client, a business owner, who for the first 12 months of her business, thought she had a mountain to climb in order to get the clients she wanted. Well she did, but she got through it with the same mindset. Tweak things where necessary, learn from your mistakes but just keep going.

Developing our perseverance muscles can come from many different places, but today I’d like to share with you a story of a 10 year old with great perseverance.  

Danny is a boy who saw a man on a unicycle at a summer fair. He was hooked from the start – he wanted a unicycle and he wanted to learn how to ride it. He searched the internet to find out where you could buy one from (e-bay, of course) then got back in touch with the chap at the fair to arrange some lessons.

To begin with, he couldn’t stay on for more than a few seconds before falling off. He listened carefully to his teacher as he explained exactly how to hold the cycle, distribute his weight and place his feet. Then with an increasingly determined look on his face, Danny would sit on the saddle and almost immediately fall off.

Week after week, he persevered. When he wasn’t with the teacher, he practised every hour he could. As soon as he came home from school, the unicycle was out and Danny was on it. For a few seconds anyway because learning to ride a unicycle is not like learning another skill. To begin with all you do is get on and immediately fall off. The biggest challenge is actually staying on it long enough to get some momentum going. So for many weeks that’s all he did. Get on and immediately fall off. Summer turned in to Autumn and then Winter and Danny’s practising sessions became increasingly cold and dark. But even this didn’t put him off, he knew if he practised long enough, he would eventually get it …………and so he did.

So if you find yourself running out of steam, think of the boy on the unicycle, if you keep on practising, keep on learning, eventually you will get where you want to go.

Whether you are a business owner or other business leader, if you would like to know more about how to develop your perseverance or any other leadership quality or skill, please call me on (07551) 303835 or e-mail me at allison@macintoshwright.co.uk for a free 30 minute consultation

So I’ve decided to offer a Business Booster workshop, a low cost ‘taster’ event, to give people the opportunity to start looking at some new ways of working. I have designed the workshop so that you begin to develop more creative strategies for growth, whether you are asking yourself how do I:-

-       identify new opportunities

-       generate more income or

-       get customers?

Using the unique Clean Language facilitation process, we will look at:-

-       what is holding you back

-       what happens when you are performing at your best and

-        what needs to happen for that to happen more often

So if you are an entrepreneur who wants their business to thrive as well as survive why not join us for this fun and informative workshop designed to start giving you the clarity you need to take your business to the next level.

Date:               Tuesday 13^th March 2012

Venue:           Beechwood Hall Hotel, Worthing-http://www.beechwoodhallhotel.co.uk/

Time:              9.15 am for a 9.30 start. Finish 11.30am

Cost of the event is £12 if booked in advance, £15 on the day.

Places are limited so go to Business Booster to register your place or for more information, email allison@macintoshwright.co.uk or tel  07551 303835

If you would like to know more about how Clean Language and peer mentoring groups for Business Owners can help you get the clients you want, or if you would be interested in an event like this near you, call me on (07551) 303835 or e-mail me at allison@macintoshwright.co.uk for a free 30 minute consultation

Clean Language was developed by David Grove.

My focus in this article is going to be about identifying whether there is a demand for your product which includes asking some creative questions.

The starting point is research amongst your potential customer base. Ask what their current challenges are in relation to the product you provide. For instance, if you provide a therapeutic service such as acupuncture or massage, you can ask about their stress levels, how they currently manage them and what they would like to have happen. When they give you the answer to this you can begin your creative questioning.

Let’s say they tell you they would like to feel more relaxed at the end of a working day. Then ask a couple of questions that keep their focus on their desired outcome such as ‘what kind of relaxed is that relaxed’ or ‘is there anything else about a relaxed like that?’

Now these questions might sound a little strange, however what they do is focus your prospects mind on the feeling of relaxation they want to achieve. The more you understand about that feeling, the more you understand about what you need to provide and the better you can tailor your product accordingly. Happy clients, happy business owner!

The questions are part of the set of ‘Clean Language’ questions devised by counselling psychologist David Grove during the 1980s and 90s – David looked at ways of helping clients achieve their desired outcomes or goals by focusing on the words they used and the meaning they attached to them.

Obviously the more prospects you ask, the better the picture you will have, but research like this ie in depth or qualitative, doesn’t have to be extensive, maybe up to about 20 people. You are likely to find similarities cropping up which will help you develop what your clients want and as you build your client bank, you can keep asking the questions so you are building your knowledge all the time.

If you would like to know more about how Clean Language and peer mentoring groups for Business Owners can help you get the clients you want why not come along to our Business Booster taster day in Worthing on 16^th March 2012. Call (07551) 303835 or e-mail me at allison@macintoshwright.co.uk  to register your place.

1. Building the Vision

The most important thing is that your team understand where they are going. So your first job is to paint the picture of where you will end up ie create the vision statement.  Ideally, this should involve their input. Not only will the change process be much easier if they have helped shape the vision themselves, the project will benefit from having input from those much closer to the detail.

Whether or not this is possible, when describing the vision, you need to be clear and direct. Some may not like what you have to say but the alternative will only lead to misunderstandings and resentment further down the line.

If you are very brave you might speak prior to the meeting to those you know will object most strongly and encourage them to ask the awkward questions.  You will then both know what to expect during the meeting and are more likely to deal with difficult questions and answers in a calm and logical way.

2. The Change Process

Talk to your team about the change process, what they can expect to see, hear and feel during the period of change.  Use a simple change model to demonstrate such as this one - Change Diagram.

Explain that not everyone will be at the same point in their acceptance of the change on any given day and you will all need to support each other when you have difficult days. 

3. Fallout.

Tell your team you understand that some people may never accept the new way and if that is the case you will do everything you can to help them find a position elsewhere. By doing this you are putting the responsibility firmly with them to accept or reject the change and letting them know you accept their right to ‘vote with their fee’ if they don’t like it.

4. Acknowledge progress

 If the changes you are implementing are particularly radical or labour intensive to begin with, it can be easy to forget to take a step back and acknowledge how far you’ve come. As a wise man once said -  “ if you think you’ve got a long way to go just turn around and look behind to see how far you’ve come already” 

5. Useful questions

Along the way you will face challenges and difficulties. Anything from “that’s impossible” or “we can’t get the system to do that” or “that will never work” etc etc.  A useful starting point in dealing with these is to ask some specific questions that will help give you clarity around the problem and potential solutions. Questions like:-

- When talking about the desired outcome – ‘is there anything else about’ or ‘what kind of’

- When talking about the obstacle –‘what needs to happen for that to happen’ (ie for the obstacle to be removed) and ‘what needs to happen for that to happen’ etc etc

These are three of the basic Clean Language questions and are a great way of getting clarity around problems and solutions.

6. What does success look like

Never forget the end game, the business benefit which will come with the change. That is why you have decided to embark on this journey so don’t let the process of change make you forget the reason you are doing this in the first place.

The implementation of any change is like a roller coaster ride, but it can be a fun one.  You will have your ups and downs along the way but at the end of the journey if you stay on track you are left with a feeling of exhilaration.

If you would like to know more about how Clean Language can help you to manage change or develop the capability of your team, you or your business, call me on (07551) 303835 or e-mail me at allison@macintoshwright.co.uk for a free 30 minute consultation

1. I spent two years as a volunteer calltaker for an organization called Parentline Plus (now rebranded as Family Lives) as well as training with Childline.

2. My educational ‘achievements’ include ‘Best Insurance Student’ at my local college when I was on day release in my 20’s and ‘Best Humorous Speech’ in a Toastmasters Competition.

3. One of my most rewarding projects as a Coach has been to work with Naval personnel resettling in to civilian life. Humbling and a real eye opener.

4. I once hosted a Corporate dinner for 120 clients where I served the wine myself because the  service was so bad.

5. A few years ago, when I asked my 10 year old nephew what he wanted to do as a special treat on his weekend visit between:-

1. A trip to London to visit the Imperial War Museum and the London Eye
2. A visit to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard
3. A trip to Eurotunnel on the Eurostar

He asked ‘couldn’t we do it all’? So we did. We had a day in London, then after staying overnight in a hotel, we caught the Eurostar from Waterloo to Paris for the day. The day after, we went to Portsmouth. Watching him take it all in was worth all the time, effort and money.

6. I will admit to having occasional ‘blonde’ moments – the trip to Paris nearly didn’t happen because I inadvertently threw the tickets in the rubbish.

7. One of my most rewarding projects in the Corporate World has been to successfully integrate three teams from three different business (following takeovers) in to the ways of working and culture of a fourth. Oh yes, and managing the onsite supplier through the same journey.

8. I have a 22 year old son and I believe I had the shortest pregnancy ever recorded. I only discovered I was pregnant when I went to the infertility clinic to find out ‘why it wasn’t happening’ – I was 18 weeks pregnant then and he was born at 31 weeks. All 3lbs15oz of him. He recovered quickly and has grown up to be a strapping six footer.

9. On a trip to Islay to research my family tree, I discovered a distant relative who lived around three miles away from me in Hampshire. She was in her eighties and the grand-daughter of the most interesting character I discovered on my research – a Glasgow Police Inspector from the 1930’s. It was lovely to then get the opportunity to meet her and find out more about him.

10. As well as coaching qualifications from the Institute of Leadership and Management, I work with a process called Clean Language, a powerful tool for clarity, change and personal development which  uses metaphors to unlock the unconscious mind. I am passionate about using this tool to show leaders of teams and businesses how they can make the most of their own and their team’s capabilities.   

If you would like to know more about how Clean Language can help you develop the capability of you, your business or your team, call me on (07551) 303835 or e-mail me at allison@macintoshwright.co.uk for a free 30 minute consultation

Growth strategy for the 21^st century

Whatever problems you are currently facing, there is one skill you can develop quickly and easily which has the potential to give you the answers and business growth you are looking for. And that is quite simply to develop your listening skills.

If you can be better at listening to your prospects or customers, you develop a deeper understanding of their needs and how you can meet them. If you have employees and learn how to listen to them better, you develop a deeper understanding of what is happening on the ‘front line’ and what needs to happen for your staff to be happier and more productive. But more important than any of that, if you can develop your skills at listening to your self, you will clarify your thinking, make more sense of your thoughts and become crystal clear about what you want for your business and what needs to happen to achieve the success you desire.

So how can you develop your listening skills? One way is to experience and learn more about a process called ‘Clean Language’, otherwise known as extreme listening. Clean Language was devised by counselling psychologist David Grove during the 1980s and 90s – David looked at ways of helping clients work on their desired outcomes or goals by focusing on the words they used and the meaning they attached to them.

The effect of this approach is that it brings clarity to your understanding of your desired outcome and how you might get there and when this work is carried out in peer mentoring groups it can be even more powerful. The business owner can work on their own problems and growth strategies, as well as hearing and learning from their peers.

If you would like to know more about how Clean Language and how peer mentoring groups for Business Owners can help you achieve your desired outcomes please call me on (07551) 303835 or e-mail me at allison@macintoshwright.co.uk for a free 30 minute consultation

I interviewed a couple of dozen business leaders, ranging from first line operational managers to board members whose time is usually spent on more strategic matters.

Business Challenges – the results

The results varied. Much of what people were saying I already knew but other things came as a bit of a surprise. For instance leaders seem to struggle with managing what has become known as “ the Facebook generation”.  It seems you don’t have to be very old to feel a gap between you and younger members of your team who have different views on the world of work and what they expect out of it, let alone their approach to using technology.

Unsurprisingly, the biggest challenge faced by each individual, without exception, was the current economic climate and more specifically the fast pace of change prompted by both global uncertainty and modern technology. As one respondent succinctly put it  - the problem isn’t that my children are coming in to a business world that is different to the one I entered thirty years ago, it’s that my youngest is coming in to a business world vastly different to that of his older sibling.

Effective Leadership – the solution

So how do you deal with that? Well one company I spoke to had already identified that the key to their future business success was listening. Listening not only to their customers but also to those on their operational front line, to others in their industry and to global events which may have a knock on effect to their business.

And this of course is all music to my ears because what I am passionate about is showing business leaders how they can be more productive by developing their listening skills. Listening better to themselves which helps them clarify their thinking and become crystal clear about their vision and direction (which in turn helps them communicate better with their teams).  And listening better to their teams to help them become more productive.

So how do I do this? I use a process called ‘Clean Language’, otherwise known as extreme listening. Clean Language was devised by counselling psychologist David Grove during the 1980s and 90s – David observed that other therapists would distort their clients’ language and felt that this ‘robbed’ them of their true experience. To further explain, if coaching is about helping people find their own solutions to their problems, then Clean Language does this in an extreme way. Firstly, once you have identified the client’s goal or desired outcome your focus is then on developing their understanding of the words they use in a way that gives them more clarity around what they want. A simple example would be if someone said “I want to be rich” the facilitator would explore with them what they meant by rich. Does that mean piles of gold sitting on either side of you or does it merely means having enough time to spend with family and friends?

Secondly we talk about the client’s metaphors as if they were real and build a full three dimensional metaphoric landscape of their desired outcome. For instance “I am floating on a cloud” you would then ask “What kind of cloud is that?”, “Is there anything else about that cloud?”, “Does it have a shape or size?” etc etc.

The net effect of this process is that firstly it brings clarity to the client’s understanding of their desired outcome and secondly having the metaphoric landscape embeds the vision of the goal, brings it to life and makes it feel more real.

In short, Clean Language uses metaphors to unlock the unconscious mind and act as a tool for clarity and change.

If you would like to know more about how Clean Language can help you or your team achieve your desired outcomes please call me on (07551) 303835 or e-mail me at allison@macintoshwright.co.uk for a free 30 minute consultation

Change of boss?

John’s work life had become increasingly difficult since he acquired his boss 18 months previously.  Although his boss showed an interest in John’s personal development, the occasions when they got together were few and far between and John became more and more frustrated at his lack of progress. Eventually he decided that rather than keep ‘banging his head against a brick wall’ he would be better off elsewhere and after being approached by a competitor, accepted an offer of a similar role where he knew the boss was someone who put her team’s personal development as a priority.
At first all was well and John settled in to his new role quite quickly. After some initial ‘hand holding’, John was ready to be let loose with his new responsibilities but that never quite happened. For whilst his new boss was happy to give him as much time as he needed on his personal development, her style also included keeping tight control over everything that was going on, getting involved in even the tiniest detail of the team’s activities. This didn’t suit John at all, who had got used to his previous boss’s style of letting him get on with things. Ultimately, John ended up with someone else he considered a ‘bad boss’, but this time for different reasons.

Coping strategies
John realized that after two ‘bad bosses’ in a row, maybe it was time to look to himself to see what changes he could make rather than try yet another boss. Having such a detailed scrutiny of his work was never going to suit him so we worked on coping strategies to adopt whilst he stayed the length of time in this role which would look reasonable on his CV before moving on. And during that period he would be able to take advantage of the personal development opportunities available to him.
And this week another of my clients has developed coping strategies for his  own set of  circumstances. He is ready to step in to the role of his boss who is retiring at the end of this year. Everything is in place for a gradual handover, however, in the last few months the boss’s behaviour has started to change and not in positive ways – blocking initiatives he would normally have agreed, picking up on minor points, demanding to be involved in issues he has previously shown no interest in. My client realizes this is all probably because his boss is fighting the inevitable and has worked out some ways of both keeping his boss ‘on side’ for these remaining months and keeping himself happy when that doesn’t quite work.
And as a leader in business, you could find yourself at either end of these problems, so if you would like to know how YOU can deal with a bad boss OR if you would like to be the sort of boss who can help people look to themselves to change rather than blaming others, call me on 07551303835 or email allison@macintoshwright.co.uk for a free 30 minute consultation

Creating the Vision

The key difference between a Manager and a Leader is that the Leader sets the vision, then the Manager manages the journey towards that vision by controlling the processes and people necessary to make the journey a success.

For a leader to create a vision, they need to have vision, to see what comes after the thing that comes after the thing that comes after today. And in order to have vision, they need to challenge the norms and challenge the now. To understand why we do what we do today and what needs to be different to make change happen – Mikhail Gorbachev, for instance, who introduced ‘perestroika’ and ‘glasnost’ which changed the world.

Manager to Leader

So if you are a manager looking to move towards leadership, my suggestions for starting are:-
-          create a vision for your own area of responsibility – one that your team can follow

-         empower your team. By self definition, a leader has followers. And if the vision is to be achieved it needs to be shared effectively, which means empowering your followers. And the way to empower is to listen and trust

-         build relationships with your team which will result in them believing in your vision and make it easy for them to follow you. Building those relationships can include:-

• being open, let them see your vulnerability
• be fair, they might not like your message sometimes, but they will accept it better if it is coming from the heart
• filling up the bucket of goodwill between you. When you need to ask for extra effort or have bad news to deliver, the success of your delivery will be easier if your goodwill bucket is flowing over. And the way to make that happen? Give praise when due, celebrate success, listen to people, show them you understand and care and give them what they want as far as possible.

-         look for ways to influence the vision created by the leaders in your business – get used to challenging

-        have robust processes and procedures in place that ensure the smooth running of your business.  In his book ‘Coaching High Performance Teams’, Grant Ledgerwood quotes one of Nelson’s Trafalgar Principles – ‘Practice and drill can turn every challenge into fluent strength’. In other words, the more stable your operational base, the more you are freed up to be pro-active. And pro-activity is a key element of leadership.

-      have courage. One of our best known leaders, Richard Branson, says “My phrase over the years has been – Screw it, just do it, because to succeed as a business leader, you must have the bravery to give it a go. One needs resolve and conviction to overcome hurdles and give people confidence to follow you.”

If you would like to know how YOU can move from Manager to Leader, call me on 07551303835 or email allison@macintoshwright.co.uk for a free 30 minute consultation